“At the PCA General Assembly, the Little Guys Stood Up” by Carl R. Trueman, First Things, July 8, 2021.
By Dr. Ralph Blair
(PDF version available here.)
Trueman says: “The little guys stood up.” He’s referring to men who meet their own needs for sexual/romantic intimacy with a wife of mutual choice but trample on fellow Christians who have the same involuntary needs for intimacy, but with a man of mutual choice. Trueman validates these “little guys”, who, with Trueman, can’t relate, or refuse to relate, to the challenges faced by gay ministers who are forced to cope with lifelong celibacy. These seriously dedicated celibate, yet still homosexually oriented evangelical Presbyterian ministers, are ranked below the bottom rung of the ladder of respectability in the PCA, not allowed to even whisper the truth that they live every day: That they’re still “homosexual Christians andcommitted to lifelong celibacy”. That word is verboten!
So, the true “little guys” are these belittled gay guys – the “have nots”, “without clout”, after decades of being badly misunderstood, liedabout, and forced to commit to lifelong celibacy while their self-righteous “superiors” are allowed to meet their sexual needs. But these belittled ones, Christian heroes, putting service to Christ ahead of all else, at costs never forced onto heterosexuals.
What was it that Jesus said he’ll say to the wicked at the End – in regard to those who lacked the most basic needs of life? “I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was an outcast and you refused to include me, I needed support and you gave me none”. Those addressed will demand evidence. And Jesus will say, “Truly, what you didn’t do for the least, you didn’t do for me.” (Matt 25)
At the latest General Assembly of The Presbyterian Church in America, our country’s major evangelical Presbyterian denomination, bullies beat up on the “little guys” who, by no choice of theirs, found out at puberty, that their involuntary sexual orientation was to some guys, just as the PCA bullies, by no choice of theirs, found out at puberty, that their involuntary sexual orientation was to some girls. None of this was chosen; none merits applause. It was simply what was spontaneously felt. Both were givens, though one was much harder to cope with in both secular and church circles.
Well, who but big bullies refuse to follow Jesus’ call to treat others as you want to be treated? He taught that, loving God with all you’ve got, and loving others as you love yourself, embraces the Law and Prophets. (Mt 7:12; 22:36-40)
PCA’s self-blinded delegates take for granted their involuntary sexual orientational needs for intimacy, but they deliberately rule against their fellow Christians with equally involuntary sexual orientational needs for intimacy. Adding insult to injury, they demand that these brethren cease even identifying as homosexual even in their commitment to celibacy – i.e., lie, to justify the big bullies’ lies. What if the tables were turned? Would the PCA bullies wise up if these tables were overturned as other tables once were?
If the bullies researched the evidence, they’d find it lacks a sound biblical, theological and psychological base. But doing so, they’d be in trouble, as were their Southern Presbyterian forebears for pushing against “Bible-justified” slavery and segregation.
Trueman cheers the antigay votes of “ruling elders who aren’t professional clergy and who live in the real world” as he puts it, while he mocks “noisy pulpits”, “PCA elites.” He wonders if the “elites” will listen “as humbly to fellow presbyters as they have apparently been willing to listen to culturally dominant voices in society at large? Or will they simply blame the result on the bigoted troglodyte ignorance of the majority?”
Both the General Assembly and Trueman ignore the history of “ex-gay” frauds. Last year, the latest “ex-gay” network, Hope for Wholeness, disbanded. It was an offshoot of Exodus’ “ex-gay” network that failed years ago and closed in 2013 when its leader, Alan Chambers, publicly apologized to all who’d tried to change over “years working through the shame and guilt when your attractions didn’t change.” Chambers admits, nobody’s homosexual orientation changed. It was all predictable, from the first “ex-gay” frauds, “ministries”, that closed in the mid-‘70s, after “ex-gay” founders sexually assaulted young gay men who came for the “ex-gay cure”.
What’s overlooked or unknown to the PCA and Trueman is that gay evangelicals have been firmly supported by many evangelical leaders for over half a century. In 1975, Bob Rayburn, founder of the PCA’s Covenant College & Seminary, was the first evangelical leader to affirm the founding of Evangelicals Concerned.
EC’s evangelical supporters and those who’ve expressed appreciation of the ministry of EC, include: Marten Woudstra, Eugenia Price, Rosalind Rinker, Nicholas Wolterstorff, John F. Alexander, Mark Olson, Henk Hart, Robert Bratcher, Val Clear, Robert W. Lyon, Fisher Humphries, Steve Hayner, Paul Jewett, Lew Smedes, Wally Howard, Stan Rock, Walt Hearn, Chuck Smith Jr., Kay Lindskoog, Randy Balmer, Harry R. Boer, Hal Ellens, Ray McAfee, Cynthia Clawson, David G. Myers, Marsha Stevens, Ken Medema, Jack Rogers, Charlie Shedd, Bob Wennberg, Jim Rayburn III, Jane Dickie, Nancy Hardesty, Roy Clements, Clark Pinnock, Tom Howard, Gerald Sheppard, David Augsburger, Mel White, George E. Moreland, Philip Yancey, Oswald C. J. Hoffman, John Shore, Andrew Kuyvenhoven, J. Robertson McQuilkin, Jeanne Hanson, David O. Moberg, Leroy Garrett, Gardner C. Taylor, R. Maurice Boyd, Hillary Bercovici, June Hagen, Chris Plekenpol, Doug LeBlanc, Craig Detweiler, Leonard Patterson, Barbara Johnson, Joe Dallas, Jay Bakker, Velma & D. D. Davis, Dale & Jonalyn Fincher, Tony Jones, Justin Lee, Peggy & Tony Campolo, Phyllis Hart, Todd Komarnicki & Jane Bradbury, H. Wayne House, Richard A. Fowler, James Leo Garrett, Jr., James E. Tull, E. Glenn Hinson, Reta Halteman Finger, Pat Burgin, Roger Mesmer, Howard L. Rice, Kirk Talley, Jeremy Marks, Nelson Gonzalez, Don Dayton, Daniel Dobson, Jerushah Duford, Gayla R. Postma, Donald Zeyl, et al
PS: Before EC, C. S. Lewis publicly stood upfor themocked “pansies” of the UK.